Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to data storage, and more particularly to, lock-free processing of stateless protocols over Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA).
Description of the Related Art
In high-speed networking and in high-performance computing environments, remote direct memory access (RDMA) is expected to become increasingly invaluable. For example, data centers and server farms will rely on remote direct memory access to coordinate computing devices connected by networks running packet protocols, such as transmission control protocol (TCP). In computing, remote direct memory access is a direct memory access from the user application memory of one data processing system into the user application memory of another data processing system without involving either data processing system's operating system. As a result, remote direct memory access supports zero-copy networking by enabling a network input/output adapter to transfer data directly to or from user application memory, eliminating the need to copy data between user application memory and the data buffers in the operating system. Such transfers require little to no work to be done by central processing units (CPUs), caches, or context switches, and transfers may continue in parallel with other system operations. When an application performs a remote direct memory access Read or Write request, the application data is delivered directly to the network, reducing latency and enabling faster data transfer. This permits high-throughput, low-latency networking, which is especially useful in parallel computer clusters.